Drabble Expansion Series #1
Ok, so I've been writing a lot of Sheldon/Penny drabbles for Paradox and Paradox_Drabble and have decided to try to expand some of them into a story, While I expand the individual drabbles I figured I'd post the expanded versions here (origional drabbles can be found on fanfiction.net)
So without further ado, here is the first expansion.
Alcohol was the only drug Penny Hofstadter had ever abused. From the time she first tasted it at age fourteen she’d been drinking the liquid on and off for various reasons. A habit that only got worse the older she got. She knew that she needed to stop, it affected her job, her choices, and more importantly it affected her daughter, but she couldn’t. It was the only way she knew to get away from her the emotions and memories that ran through her daily. The memories of him that always entered her mind every time she let her guard down. It was one of only two things that made the reality of her life now any easier to bear.
There was a time in her life when she hadn’t needed it, even in her adult life, a time when she was happy, a time when her neighbors across the hall provided her the friendship and escape from her life that she so desperately needed. She knows her husband remembers those times as well, though not always as fondly. She had missed the signs then, with Leonard, how his friendship had started out on shaky grounds to begin with. She could see it clearly now, but back then, he was a friend.
She hadn’t expected how close she would grow to his roommate, the crazy whack-a-doodle man who had a routine and rule for everything. Who acted so much like a stubborn child. Yet together they forged a friendship, one without hidden agendas or ulterior motives.
Then their friendships were strained, with breakups, with new relationships, and she found herself losing her time with them. Losing her friendship with everyone, and she did what she had always done in those situations, and hid behind false smiles and bottles of alcohol. It was one of those nights, everyone else having gone out without even asking her if she wanted to go, that he found her, buried in a bottle, halfway to drinking herself to death. She expected a lecture, expected him to ignore her like they all had lately, but instead he was silent. Walking around her apartment he cleaned around her, replacing her bottle with a glass of water, picking her up and helping her into bed. It was at that moment, she let her true feelings out, and for just a night the two of them acknowledged what they’d felt for so long.
She wished she’d had the courage to do it sober.
The next morning he was gone, and she’d almost thought it had been a dream, neither of them mentioned it, even when Leonard and the others returned the next day, even when in her half drunken state her and Leonard spent the night, and the next, and the next together.
She thought it was a dream until Leonard found the shirt. She passed it off, saying it had gotten mixed up in her laundry last weekend while they were gone, even as the memories of how she really had gotten it passed quickly through her mind.
Maybe if she’d been sober that night, if she’d had the courage to tell Leonard the truth, her reality would have been a lot different, but she hadn’t.
Then a few months later she found out she was pregnant. She honestly thought it was Leonard’s. She never thought it could be Sheldon’s. Leonard insisted they marry, and she didn’t have a choice. She couldn’t raise the child on her own, after all. She wanted her child to have a good life. Even if it meant settling for someone she cared for but didn’t love.
It was a disaster from the beginning. They were too different, with two different views on the world. The birth of their daughter only made it worse. It didn’t take him long to realize what her heart had known for ages. Dark haired, blue eyed, and smarter than she had any right to be, her daughter was not his. At first he tried, but as the years passed, he saw she adored that girl in a way she could never care for him. As the years passed he came to resent both of them, and as his anger grew so did his explosions as his temper was freed. It started as angry words over small things, then grew to screaming matches, and hitting.
She wanted to leave, but she had nowhere to go. Maybe if she wasn’t such a coward, she could get herself out, but she was the mother of a six year old, with no job, and no friends beyond his social circle, even her family had given up on her. She had nowhere to go.
Maybe if she had been stronger she wouldn’t be stuck in this marriage, stuck with a man who had grown to hate her.
So without further ado, here is the first expansion.
Alcohol was the only drug Penny Hofstadter had ever abused. From the time she first tasted it at age fourteen she’d been drinking the liquid on and off for various reasons. A habit that only got worse the older she got. She knew that she needed to stop, it affected her job, her choices, and more importantly it affected her daughter, but she couldn’t. It was the only way she knew to get away from her the emotions and memories that ran through her daily. The memories of him that always entered her mind every time she let her guard down. It was one of only two things that made the reality of her life now any easier to bear.
There was a time in her life when she hadn’t needed it, even in her adult life, a time when she was happy, a time when her neighbors across the hall provided her the friendship and escape from her life that she so desperately needed. She knows her husband remembers those times as well, though not always as fondly. She had missed the signs then, with Leonard, how his friendship had started out on shaky grounds to begin with. She could see it clearly now, but back then, he was a friend.
She hadn’t expected how close she would grow to his roommate, the crazy whack-a-doodle man who had a routine and rule for everything. Who acted so much like a stubborn child. Yet together they forged a friendship, one without hidden agendas or ulterior motives.
Then their friendships were strained, with breakups, with new relationships, and she found herself losing her time with them. Losing her friendship with everyone, and she did what she had always done in those situations, and hid behind false smiles and bottles of alcohol. It was one of those nights, everyone else having gone out without even asking her if she wanted to go, that he found her, buried in a bottle, halfway to drinking herself to death. She expected a lecture, expected him to ignore her like they all had lately, but instead he was silent. Walking around her apartment he cleaned around her, replacing her bottle with a glass of water, picking her up and helping her into bed. It was at that moment, she let her true feelings out, and for just a night the two of them acknowledged what they’d felt for so long.
She wished she’d had the courage to do it sober.
The next morning he was gone, and she’d almost thought it had been a dream, neither of them mentioned it, even when Leonard and the others returned the next day, even when in her half drunken state her and Leonard spent the night, and the next, and the next together.
She thought it was a dream until Leonard found the shirt. She passed it off, saying it had gotten mixed up in her laundry last weekend while they were gone, even as the memories of how she really had gotten it passed quickly through her mind.
Maybe if she’d been sober that night, if she’d had the courage to tell Leonard the truth, her reality would have been a lot different, but she hadn’t.
Then a few months later she found out she was pregnant. She honestly thought it was Leonard’s. She never thought it could be Sheldon’s. Leonard insisted they marry, and she didn’t have a choice. She couldn’t raise the child on her own, after all. She wanted her child to have a good life. Even if it meant settling for someone she cared for but didn’t love.
It was a disaster from the beginning. They were too different, with two different views on the world. The birth of their daughter only made it worse. It didn’t take him long to realize what her heart had known for ages. Dark haired, blue eyed, and smarter than she had any right to be, her daughter was not his. At first he tried, but as the years passed, he saw she adored that girl in a way she could never care for him. As the years passed he came to resent both of them, and as his anger grew so did his explosions as his temper was freed. It started as angry words over small things, then grew to screaming matches, and hitting.
She wanted to leave, but she had nowhere to go. Maybe if she wasn’t such a coward, she could get herself out, but she was the mother of a six year old, with no job, and no friends beyond his social circle, even her family had given up on her. She had nowhere to go.
Maybe if she had been stronger she wouldn’t be stuck in this marriage, stuck with a man who had grown to hate her.